Winter Chill
by saritadelrio
Summary: Will gives Finn a ride home and finds he doubles as a space heater. Will/Finn pre-slash
1. Winter Chill

**As much as I'd love to own these characters, I don't, otherwise the show would be vastly different.**

**This started out as a one-shot, but if it's received well, I can see a sequel. Reviews are 3**

Dusk brought small snow flurries in the November air. Will's heater was on the fritz, he'd been meaning to get it fixed since the first cold snap of the season. But bills had come up, then he got sick, shit happens.

Thank God for Thanksgiving break, Will thought, rubbing his hands together, trying in vain to get them warm. Maybe now he'd have time to get it fixed. His kids had been so excited for the break that he'd given up trying to teach, eventually letting them watch Elf in Spanish. They got a kick out of watching Will Ferrell exclaiming "Buddy el elfo. ¿Cuál es tu color favorito?"

And Will had no homework to grade over the break. It was win-win.

Stopped at a red light, Will noticed one of his students walking along the street. His freshly minted Letterman shone in Will's headlights and the snow settled lightly in his black hair. Will honked and Finn turned, startled. Will waved him over to the car and rolled down the passenger window.

"Hey, you need a ride? It's pretty cold outside. I mean my car's not that much warmer, but at least you'll be out of the snow."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I kinda don't wanna go home just yet. It's date night for mom and Burt and Kurt's taking advantage of the empty house and invited that Blaine kid over. And it's not that I have anything against him, but it's just kinda awkward hearing them make out in the other room. So I was planning on walking over to Puck's to see what he was up to, but he texted me that him and Santana were on a double date with Britt and Artie, which I still find really weird that they're together..."

At this point the light had been green for several moments and the car behind Will began honking impatiently.

"Why don't we go to my place? I have hot chocolate and some cake that my mom brought over yesterday."

"You had me at hot chocolate and cake." Finn gave Will a small grin.

Will popped the passenger door and Finn climbed in and tried to close his door.

"You kinda got to lift it and slam it," Will laughed, "this car is a piece of shit."

"Yeah I can tell," Finn said lifting his fingers to the vents, "no heat. Luckily I have superhuman warmth."

Finn reached for Will's hand.

"See? Geez your hands are freezing!" Finn said as he wrapped his hands around Will's smaller one.

"Maybe you should scoot closer, I can use all the heat I can get. My body runs cold, my mom says it's poor circulation. I attribute it to her drinking while she was pregnant." Will laughed hollowly, placing his hand back on the steering wheel.

"I don't mind, if you don't," Finn scooted to the middle seat and huddled close to Will's chilled body, "it'd just be kinda awkward to explain if anyone saw us like this, though."

"Wow, you are warm," Will turned and smiled at the young quarterback. He could feel Finn's thigh burning through his too-thin jeans. "My apartment is just a few blocks up."

"It's cool," Finn smiled, draping his arm behind Will.

Will cuddled against Finn's warmth, slightly regretting that his apartment was so close. It had been a while since he had human contact like this. He pushed down memories of driving Terri to school in the Blue Bomber senior year. Of course it was the opposite, Terri had huddled against him, her hand had rested on his thigh, feeling his muscles contract while he was driving. That memory rose like bile in his throat and he had to swallow it down and casually wipe the tear from his eye like it was no big deal. Terri's lie was still raw, like a scab you couldn't help picking at. Will could pretend for days that it didn't bother him anymore, but he knew that it had bruised him, and right now Finn was a soothing heat pack that dulled the pain. For that he was grateful.

"Mr. Schue, you okay?" Finn asked, noticing a tear.

"Yeah, just cold." Will sniffled.

"My eyes usually water when my nose gets cold," Finn reached over and touched Will's nose. "Yep, like ice."

Will pulled into his parking spot at his complex and gave a pretend smile, burying his pain down to his core, a chill following it.

"Hey, come here," Finn said pulling Will into a bear hug, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm him. Will nuzzled into Finn's neck, comforted by his touch.

"You could always have Burt look at your heater," Finn said naively, "I'm sure he'd give you a hell of a discount. Especially since you performed at their wedding. And since you've been helping Kurt out with Karofsky."

"Yeah," Will mumbled against Finn, "that sounds like a plan."

"Is this you?" Finn asked, letting go of Will. "I'm ready for that hot chocolate, but could I make it? Mom always makes it a certain way and it's really good. I know you'll love it."

"That sounds amazing," Will said, switching the ignition off and opening his door, letting a fresh, cold blast of air into the car. Will stepped out of the car and Finn clamored after him, slamming the door and placing a protective arm around the older man, shielding him from the wind. Will put his arm around Finn's back and they walked to his door in comfortable silence. The wind whipped through their hair, but neither felt the chill, just the warmth of the other.


	2. The Art of Ending

**As much as I'd love to own these characters, I don't, otherwise the show would be vastly different.**

**Title taken from this quote: "Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending." - Lazarus Long. Reviews are love.**

Even though Finn royally screwed up the hot chocolate by mistaking cayenne pepper for cinnamon, it was an enjoyable evening. Finn explored Will's kitchen, thumbing through cookbooks, earmarking recipes that he thought they should try. He wondered at Will's coffee mug collection, a souvenir of his years of teaching. They laughed at some of them including Suzy Pepper's jalapeno mug and Rachel's gold starred one.

"It's not hard to see why they were obsessed with you, Mr. Schue," Finn said earnestly, turning a black cup with the New York City skyline over in his hands. "You're pretty awesome and like the best dancer ever. And I don't mind the white boy rap."

"You're one of the only ones," Will laughed. "Do you read Jacob's blog?"

"Nah, I don't really care what he has to say," Finn murmured thoughtfully, still inspecting Will's collection, "that and my laptop is pretty much for porn and homework."

Will snickered, remembering his teenage years were laced with dirty magazines. He was sure that if he was younger today, the same would ring true for him. Hell, his own laptop today was loaded with porn.

"So," Will cleared his throat, signifying a much-needed change of subject, "what kind of movies do you like?"

"Umm, mostly those shoot-em-up action flicks," Finn said, setting down a homemade mug with painted musical notes. "I'm not too big on war movies, they hit a little close to home. Westerns are all right, John Wayne is pretty bad ass. And I like that one with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe."

"Do you want to look at my movie collection? Or do you want me to take you home? It is getting pretty late..." Will said, glancing at the clock.

"No," Finn jumped up and rushed over to Will's DVD case. "I'm good, really." He turned and smiled at Will before busying himself with selecting a DVD.

Will prepped another pot of water, and made sure the cayenne pepper was far out of Finn's hands.

Finn ran his fingers over the DVD cases. Will had them organized by genre, action, romance, a large number of horror, including all the Saw films to Finn's surprise, and of course musicals. Finn stopped at small amount of hand-labeled DVDs, home movies.

"Hey, what's this?" He grabbed one labeled Wedding.

"Oh, that," Will glanced at the movie, and grabbed two cups from the cupboard. "That's mine and Terri's wedding video," he said softly.

"Oh," Finn looked up at Will. "Why do you still have it? That would be like the first thing I'd get rid of."

"I don't know, sometimes I miss her. I'm kind of a sentimental person, I'd like to have it just in case..."

"In case what? It turns out that she's not a psycho hose beast and you guys get back together?"

Will laughed as he brought the new hot chocolate in to Finn.

"Let's get rid of it!" Finn exclaimed. "You have a fireplace, let's light a fire and burn it."

"Don't tell me you're a pyro in addition to being addicted to porn," Will smiled.

"Hey, I never said I was addicted, you're putting words in my mouth. And yeah, what teenage guy doesn't like to play with fire? Plus I think you need to get over her, like bad, and destroying this might be a good step."

"Might being the keyword." Will said, blowing softly on his way-too-hot chocolate.

"C'mon," Finn said, meeting Will's eyes, "everyone says you need to loosen up, Mr. Schue. Be impulsive for once."

Impulse. Will rolled that word around in his brain. For him it meant buying a brand new convertible. Or allowing the club to perform suggestive numbers. Or acting on newly found feelings for someone, someone who was way too young for him, like one of his students. That was impulse to him, something risky and exciting.

Burning his wedding video wasn't impulsive to him, the more he saw Finn's excitement over it, the more he wanted to do it. That, and Finn was right, it would help him get over Terri. He was almost there, but just needed a little push to help him.

"You know she tried to kiss me, right?" Finn said softly.

"Wait, what?" Will broke from his thoughts, his face screwing up in anger.

"When I was still working at Sheets-N-Things. It was late and we were closing together and I was in the back stocking and she just came onto me." Finn stared into his hot chocolate.

"So what happened?" Will said sharply.

"Well, she came up to me and said something about how she's always liked football players and starting rubbing my arm. I didn't know how to react. Then she pulled me by my apron and kind of attacked my mouth."

"And-" Will waved his hand impatiently.

"I pushed her off and told her I couldn't do that. I mean, yeah, she's smoking, but I saw how she treated you and I couldn't do that to myself. And I didn't want you to find out because I knew it would hurt you too." Finn raised his eyes to Will's, gauging his reaction.

Will was dumbstruck. He couldn't believe Terri would do that. Well scratch that, it was Terri after all. Probably one of the most self-centered, selfish people on the planet. And Finn, to be mature enough to say no, to think of the repercussions when those teenage hormones are coursing through his veins, that was pretty remarkable. Not to mention that he thought of Will's feelings too, a testament to how big his student's heart really was.

"It's a gas fireplace," Will said finally. "Here I'll turn it on, bring the DVD over."

After inspecting the gently-used fireplace and making sure the flue was open and functioning, Will arranged the fake logs and turned on the fireplace slowly. Finn watched as the short flames began licking at the logs.

"It's not gonna be hot enough just yet, is it?" Finn asked.

"Nah, we can just sit and enjoy the warmth for now." Will gestured to the couch and Finn took a seat.

Will plopped down next to him and they sat in comfortable silence, sipping their hot chocolate and watching the flames dance in the fireplace.

After what seemed like a few minutes, Will turned to look at Finn. He had his head tilted back, mouth slightly open, breathing shallowly and peacefully. His mug was dangerously close to tipping over. Will reached for his mug and set it on his coffee table. "Finn," he said softly, gently touching his arm.

The quarterback shifted slightly and started slipping down the couch. Will tried his best to catch him, but Finn's head ended up on his chest, and a large arm slipped around his waist, hugging him close.

Will looked around for Finn's cell, wanting to call his mom to tell her not to worry. He saw the outline of the phone in Finn's jeans and thought better than to fish it out of his sleeping student's pants.

Will did his best to extract himself from Finn's grasp, but was unsuccessful, the younger man had almost a death grip on him.

Before Will got too comfy, he reached for the DVD from his coffee table and frisbee tossed it into the now-roaring fire. He watched the flames curl around and begin to melt his memories.

Finn buried his head further into Will's chest and the older man laid an arm over his back, put his feet up on the coffee table and rested his head back, the sound of Finn's peaceful breathing lulling him into his own sleep.


End file.
